[AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various

>I have been burned over and over by previous developers putting such
limitations into their databases.  I have never been burned by the page file
size.

Amen!!!

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of
DWUTKA at marlow.com
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 5:54 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various


I think we are talking apples and oranges here.  Yes, the page file size
needs to be taken into consideration.  I set all of my text fields to 255.
I do this because I don't want to be backed into a wall, because I set a
size limit that prevents a user from entering what they need to enter.  If I
provide a phone number field, and set it to 10 (area code and phone number),
sure, I am 'limiting' the client.  However, what happens when they want to
put in an international number.  Or if the US decides to move to 8 digit
phone numbers.  Who knows, there are all sorts of reasons that the field
size may change.  Now, if I have some sort of logic checking data integrity,
that would have to be changed, but if I don't, by having the field size set
to 10, I am limiting the users at the table level, to a point where they
cannot do their job.  If I have it set to 255, I am 99.99999% they would
never put 255 characters into that field, but they may put in 11, or 12,
etc.

Oh well, this really isnt' something I feel like arguing about.  I see your
point Jürgen, but this is really a case of who has been burned and how.  I
have been burned over and over by previous developers putting such
limitations into their databases.  I have never been burned by the page file
size.  In fact, I completely forgot that the limit even existed, until it
popped up on the list a few weeks ago.  So that is why I set my default text
field size to 255.

Drew